For five years, IBMers have been working with companies, cities and communities around the world to build a Smarter Planet.

We've seen enormous advances, as leaders are using an explosion of data to transform their enterprises and institutions through analytics, mobile technology, social business and the cloud.

We've also seen how this new era is starting to create winners. They’re changing how their decisions are made. They're redesigning how their teams work, reassessing how to serve their customers, and changing the very nature of business.

It's the ability to harness data that gives these leaders their competitive advantage in the era of "smart."

Today, conventions once universally held are giving way to new perspectives, new ways of working, and new solutions across industries. Roles are changing. And more than ever, leaders need a partner to help them adapt.

What can you do on a smarter planet?

To outperform on a smarter planet, enterprises face some fundamental needs:

Organizations are overwhelmed with data. On a smarter planet, the most successful organizations can turn this data into valuable insights about customers, operations, even pricing. With advanced analytics, you can open new opportunities for business optimization by enabling rapid, informed and confident decisions and actions.

Innovation comes from collaboration. And collaboration comes from everywhere. Firms that embrace the power of social technologies will unleash the productivity and innovation throughout the entire value chain—from employees to partners to suppliers to customers.

Smarter comes at a cost: hardware, programs, people to run them. Cloud computing offers multiple ways to reduce that cost through efficient use of resources. Utilizing the cloud means not having to power idle equipment and being able to rethink and redistribute software quickly and easily. It also means a nimbler, more efficient organization.

There's a new breed of customers today. Empowered by technology, transparency and abundant information, they want to engage with companies on their own terms―when they want and how they want. To engage and keep these customers, organizations need a whole new integrated approach. There's no room for business and usual.

Even as storefronts had to adapt to the Internet, commerce is adapting to mobility. Armed with smartphones and tablets, consumers want to use those devices to browse, shop and pay. Today's leaders recognize that desire and are building mobile enterprises in response.

Even on a smarter planet there are risks: security, credit, market, operational, environmental and compliance risks...to name a few. With the right process and system improvements, leaders can identify, assess and monitor these risks to mitigate and prevent them.

While many enterprises share similarities, those are mostly superficial. To achieve the most from an information technology system today, your organization needs a solution that is tailored to your objectives and needs. Integrating the hardware and software into a single system provides the most power, the least pain and the best outcomes.